Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Virtunet has the expertise with VMware and Intel® Virtual Desktop solutions for enhanced learning

Learning today: A mobile experience

Today’s students are the most mobile and high tech generation to date. They are accustomed accessing data from any device, any location and at any time. Students expect easy access, and an uncompromised, immersive experience in their academic life since this is how they live. As a result, higher education institutions must deliver new virtual, personalized educational experiences accessible from any device, anywhere.
This highly mobile world can pose serious problems for educational organizations, particularly for infrastructure and IT staff that is required to support any device and mobile workstyles optimized for students. There are a myriad of different devices that students might bring with them and expect to use in their academic life – tablets, desktops, phablets, laptops, phones, Chromebooks and more. With these devices and this new “borderless classroom” comes the risk of malware and other threats to campus infrastructure and data. A new approach is required to deliver a virtualized desktop and application workspace for students that is optimized for mobility, with an uncompromised user experience, that’s secure and easy for IT to manage.

A solution for mobile learners

Client virtualization provides end users with a consumer- simple way to seamlessly access all applications, services, and resources across any device, enabling a mobile workstyle that improves student engagement and success. Dell, VMware, and Intel® together can address the needs of mobility, built on a secure and powerful solution that enables IT to manage and secure data, while providing best-in-class student experiences.

Gone are the days of desk side support for reimaging, software updates and data backups. With access to a virtualized desktop for their everyday needs, students can access their data and resources any time, all from the datacenter. IT maintains control and can apply smart policies that improve student workspace security. With the infrastructure based on Dell 13G PowerEdge servers powered by Intel® Xeon® processors and VMware Horizon, IT can proactively deploy resources for new projects and applications, verses a reactive approach of simply trying to maintain uptime across a wide range of distributed PC’s, workstations and other endpoints.

Enhanced graphics: Not a problem

Students in almost every discipline increasingly depend an immersive high-performance learning environment with applications that augment the lecture hall. High performance, graphic intensive applications are no longer constrained to fixed workstations in specialized labs. With solutions leveraging virtualized graphics hardware, combined with VMware Horizon advanced display technologies like Blast Extreme, students enjoy the same high performance graphic experience of a workstation, now accessible on a virtual desktop or application, on any device. This capacity enables students to complete lab work or even collaborate on graphic-intensive projects in a virtual environment, on devices with limited graphics capabilities. IT can reconfigure a student lab from a mainstream environment to a high end graphics design or engineering lab easily thru client virtualization, thus deferring the need for capital-intensive upgrades while extending the return on investment of the lab itself. When Wyse thin and zero client endpoints are included in that solution, management is even easier and refresh cycles are increased significantly.

Simplify IT operations

It is easy to centralize, standardize and simplify IT processes to reduce desk-side visits, minimize downtime and patch environments efficiently with Dell and VMware’s client virtualization solutions. IT can resolve issues more quickly and dynamically provision student and educator applications and data. IT staff can focus on more strategic projects that drive greater benefits to your organization, facility and student body. Application deployment request mid-semester no longer need to be postponed to summer downtime, enabling students and faculty to get access to the latest applications in their digital classroom and lab, anytime, anywhere. As demand grows, Dell’s appliance approach to infrastructure allows IT to spin up desktop capacity faster with simplified management resources, improving IT efficiency and allowing resources to be proactive verses reactively.

Real-time User Personalization/Roaming creates the experience of a dedicated, persistent desktop, using a one- to-many non-persistent infrastructure, helping save money on the infrastructure needed to run an environment, while helping ensure pervasive security from datacenter to desktop.

Integrated Identity Management and mobile device security through multifactor authentication and Single Sign-On (SSO) that enables end users to securely access data and applications from any device and at any time.

Faster time-to-value: With appliances from Dell, VMware and Intel, IT resources are able to rapidly deploy, scale and manage client virtualization environments that are secure and have consistent performance from the first to last virtual session.

Easier Management: Get out of managing your student body’s wide range of endpoints while enabling them to continue to learn productively by deploying digital
workspaces. Simplify lab management with Wyse endpoints and co-developed solutions from Dell and VMware.

Wyse thin and zero client highlights

Secure by design: Virus and malware resistant thin clients with an un-published API and zero attack surface mitigate threats at the network edge. They also support a robust 802.1x wired and wireless authentication spectrum of security protocols: from all EAP connection types to robust LAN based authentication including EAP-TLS.

Flexible by function: Supports a wide range of peripherals such as bar code scanners, receipt printers, monitors, and displays.

Fast: Quick boot-up and secure desktops based on a variety of authentication methods, including rapid app access with single sign-on and 2-factor authentication.

Easy to manage: Covers the everyday basics so you don’t have to. IT can get out of the desktop hardware maintenance business.

True end-to-end client virtualization

Simplified solutions

With the preconfigured, validated and certified appliance approach, the complexity of BYOD management and client virtualization is reduced and security increased. 13G PowerEdge servers with Intel® Xeon® processors and VMware Horizon appliances incorporate management tools, predictable sizing and performance within a single device.

Client virtualization allows you to enable your students and educators to be productive in a mobile world. You enable collaboration and extend lab environments without getting into the business of extensive endpoint management. Your IT resources are able to proactively maintain the datacenter confidently, knowing all critical information is in their control. Students that are used to a just-in-time access are able to continue to learn anytime, anywhere and on any device.